Debbie's Kitchen Reveal!

11:03 AM
Katy
12 Comments

Read this for background on who Debbie is, and why I asked her if I could renovate her kitchen. Knowing what she knows now, she may wish that she'd declined. muhahahaha

Also, this isn't a full-scale renovation, it's more like a "facelift". (That still took me 10 weeks!)

When I invaded, the faucet was broken again and she had shut the hot water off completely to control the leaking. One of the drawers had been broken and unusable for 2 years.

The flooring had holes. Things were really coming undone...

Debbie works 12-15 hour days, 7 days a week. She has 3 jobs. She did not have a single day off from the time I started this project in September until now. She fractured her back over the summer, and wears a back brace 24/7. She is a home health aide and takes care of elderly, terminally ill patients.

(Deb's favorite color is lavender and this wall color isn't showing up right on my screen - it's not really blue in real life.)

She left the door unlocked so that I could come and go at odd hours, whenever I had time to work on it.
All of the carpentry projects (the banquette, the plate rack, cabinet & door trim etc) were free. I scavenged all of the materials. See: banquette, plate rack, and door trim.

When it came down to the floor, though, I couldn't figure out how to change that with no money.
Enter the people at my church. One guy gave us $200 in cash. Another guy manages a flooring company, and he gave me an entire pallet of leftover tile from his warehouse!

Throughout this project there were electrical issues, termites, water damage, tiling mishaps, and I cried at least once. It was a little overwhelming with all of these kids, I am not gonna lie. :(

The no-sew box pleat valance and table runner were only 1 yard of discounted fabric. We stained her table to match the banquette..

I got the dishwasher back in just in time for Thanksgiving, and Deb's first day off in a long time.

I think we can say Mission Accomplished.

I have begged Deb's forgiveness for trashing her house for 10 weeks, ruining all of her kitchen rags, and acting like a lunatic. She gave me some yummy blueberry liquor. I love her. And I bought her new rags.

I see these pics...and I think...your beach house will be such an AMAZING place of memories for you and your beautiful children Katy. I wish you could meet my daughter...you're the SAME kind of Mommas!

Mom and Her Drill

I used to be a mechanical engineer and a single mom. I built a tiny beach house on Tybee Island for kicks (which I sold in 2015). Then I married Prince Charming and we're renovating his gigantic wreck of a fixer-upper (aka The Lake Mansion). It's like the Brady Bunch meets The Money Pit. (Nobody younger than 40 will even get that. Sigh.)